Hi all. I've been on several websites to purchase some teaching pants inside the United States however all of the brands in the US are either tacky or outdated(no offense). Is the a website or a particular person that sells normal teaching pants inside the US?

Hello ladies with long hair! For those of you who perform/compete with your hair down or half-up, what are your best tips to keep it from getting sweaty or frizzy, or losing its shape? I want to start experimenting with my hair half-up, but I’m worried about it surviving through a whole competition day or weekend.

I wear a US size 16 men's shoe and am in need to a pair of black ballroom shoes. I've checked the web and the largest size I can find is the BL102 by So Danca in size 15. I've heard these are tight in the toes so I'm concerned they may be too small.

Any suggestions on where I can get dance shoes to fit my large feet? I'm in the Chicago, IL USA area.

I am on low income and I going to do competitive latin dancing again(I used to do it as a child for many years), all costumes I wore as a child were all supplied by my tutors so I never had to worry about it back then, but now I am all by myself doing the competitions and I have no idea where to get the costumes from to start with, the only ones I could find on Google were £400+, I want something that doesn't fall apart in 1 wear, but also affordable, preferably somewhere £50-£200, not so realistic, but if anyone knows any place in UK where I could possibly get it on that price range, please give me some guidance, thank you

Hi there, professional dancer here (I am over 18) I’ve been recommended by my dance coach to start using surgical spirits on my feet and was wondering wether I paint it on or soak my feet in a bowl of it. Any time I google it I just get medical practices haha thanks

Have you ever bought a dress from Sasuel Design?

I'm thinking about getting a custom made latin dress by this brand but I'm not sure what quality I'll receive. Does anyone have experience with this brand? Do you recommend it?

Hey all! I'm going to be flying to a comp for the first time next month, and I could really use some advice on how to compactly get everything that I need into either a carry on or checked bag. Typically for comps that I drive to, I have a carry on, duffel bag, and a garment bag for my dresses, but I know that is far too much to take on a flight!

I searched YouTube, but all of the dance packing videos glossed over the packing part from what I've seen and focused on the travel experience.

I'm flying within the US, so customs and passports will not be an issue.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!! This is my current packing list, and I'd definitely welcome feedback 🙂

Hi! I I have been dancing for 9 years now and I practice dance every single day, however I'm still bad at it and in my dance group I never get the centre or something like that. Can you please help me and tell me what it could be because it really bothers me to the point where I cry.

Hello!

I’m moving to NYC and looking for a new studio/coach. I saw a handful of posts here about NYC/NJ studios but they’re all from 4-6 years ago with outdated info so wanted to ask again!

I’ve been dancing since I was 4 pretty seriously and started ballroom training around 5 months ago. Competed for the first time recently and I’m interested in continuing with a focus on serious training and competing. I’m not super interested in social dancing as my focus is on serious training. Looking to focus on both American + international styles.

Does anyone have any recommendations for studios/coaches in NYC or even NJ that will help me seriously train and continue working towards competitions?

Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone! I was wondering if anyone has any advice for where I can find a long paso doble skirt. I’m 5’8 without my heels and all the paso skirts I’ve tried end a few inches above my ankle. When I try to use the skirt at all, it gets even shorter. I need an all black Paso skirt also which is limiting my options. If anyone is able to help I would really appreciate it!

Hello!

I am a collegiate standard dancer, and my partner and I are timing out of Bronze due to the college competition circuit regulations. As we are preparing to go into Silver, we're finding some holes in our technique and have decided to try to go back and shore up our foundational skills before we even think about tackling the new figures.

One of the weak spots I've noticed is that we aren't great at using the ground to power our movements like I keep hearing in advice, but I'm also not really sure what that means! Sometimes it feels like our drive steps are a bit weak and we don't really have much swing, so I want to see if this could be what we're missing here. Our first steps out of the prep step normally have a lot of power, but (for example in waltz) we tend to lose that in our subsequent natural/reverse turns.

Does anyone know a good explanation of how this works, both mechanically and how we should be thinking about this as we are dancing?

Most of the team is around my level (COVID really did a number on us) so there isn't anyone there to get advice from, unfortunately. We do have coaches, but our standard coach is going on an extended vacation and isn't around to answer questions, so I thought I would ask here!

Thanks for reading!

Hi!

I'm 16 years old (F) I've been doing ballet for a couple of years(5) but before that, I did ballroom dancing only for a couple of months. Recently, I've been wanting to go back to ballroom and maybe try it competitively. Should I do it? What should I expect?

I am looking for this particular skirt, but don't know whether to trust this website:
https://dance-sport.com.ua/shop/99/desc/jubka

If anyone knows where else I can find it, that would be amazing.

black skirt with colorful frills

Hi everyone!

I am a sport psychology master's student completing my thesis on self-concept and youth athletics. I am surveying dancers who are aged 13-18 years old and participate in any form of dance. If interested, please fill out this survey, which will only take between 5-10 minutes!

Survey Link: https://springfieldcollege.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bCVMb849lvjO2bA

hi. I met my new partner last month, we're both in a competing group except I'm much newer (the newest) and he's quite experienced. Our coach put us together bc they saw compatibility and chemistry, they always emphasize how we've both strengthened each other's previous weaknesses.

Our connection is solid but I am currently struggling with my confidence because of how much more skilled he is, he's really patient and willing to be my partner. He teaches me and makes opportunities and I do feel we match eo a lot when dancing but I can't seem to shake off my shyness, like if he helps me I really wish I could do the same but I don't know how. At most, I mainly follow his guidance as it hasn't caused me any problems but I'd like to be a bit more proactive to help, especially when competition time comes.

Specially when his former partner comes by and watches, I feel so 😔 bc I'm not on her skill level yet.

Anyone of you experienced having a partner who is not of a similar skill/experience level? How do you guys communicate or adjust? Any advice?

My partner and I have hard time communicating what we want from each other without offending each other. I need advice on how I can avoid making saying the wrong thing so we can continue to dance together. They will start talking about an issue she is having but I've already moved on to what I think is the problem. So my body language will tell them that I've already stopped listening even though I've said nothing and am still trying to figure out what they are trying to say. But by then they have already walked out on practice and sat down to recuperate leaving me standing there waiting. (My partner is traumatized from our passed spats and is trying to run and avoid confrontation.) I let them go take a break but still don't know how to get practice to restart. Every time I try to restart they stop caring and are zoned out and/or just go limp or they will just walk out of the building alltogether. I don't want to make it seem just like it's them but I'm not the most aware communicater sense I have ADHD and ADD so I don't always know what exactly I am fully doing to cause this. Let me know if you have any ideas for how I could better communicate to them. Or how I could restart the practice.

Have been dancing once or twice a week for a year. Just started Viennese last weekend. Are there any footwork drills recommend for learning Viennese Waltz? Once I'm dancing to the music, my feet literally can't keep up with the speed. Was thinking of soccer/basketball agility drills, any other suggestions or resources to look up?

I am posting here as I'm hopeful some of the competitive dancers have useful or helpful suggestions.

I do professional ballroom dance but I go to begginer classes sometimes for exercise is that embarrassing?

Hey DanceSport Community,

I really miss videos from training and competition sessions here on Reddit.

I would love to see more videos about standard/ballroom and latin dance competitions in this Reddit community.

This would inspire me to see more about the dance world, different locations, different competitions, and different styles of my favorite sport.

What do you think?

I recently started attended a social class about 3 months ago and it's been the best thing I've done in forever. I've been wanting to take things more seriously and just going to the social once a week hasn't felt like enough for me to progress the way I want to however. Almost everyone that attends comes with their own partner. Granted, the teachers will pick you up to give things a go but I don't find it to be enough and it's usually a bit of a whistle stop tour.

I've taken up some private lessons offered by the same place. These have been very useful, but they're still only half an hour once a week and can be rather hit and miss because lessons are in incredible demand and usually on an ad hoc basis (i.e. if someone cancels with a teacher). I feel like having a partner to consistently practice with could really go a long way in terms of keeping me sharper between lessons and improving my skills. If it has any relevance, I'm 24, a leader and UK based. Where do I find someone?

I’m learning how to do hair for DanceSport competitions, and was wondering what brand and plate size recommendations people have. If you know of any learning resources too, I’d love to hear them! Thank you!

Has anyone else felt embarrassed or uncomfortable inviting friends or family to a ballroom competition?

Context: neither me nor my partner grew up in the ballroom family and we both only started competing not a long time ago. We were competing 2 weeks ago in my partner parents home town and we invited her family to come watch. Tickets cost $75. When her family arrived they went to front desk to purchase the tickets where they were told that it is standing room only and they would have to pay $115 each to buy seats at a table. We all know that it is common practice for anyone with any ticket can sit on empty chair if it's not reserved. But her family didn't know that and the people at the front were forceful that they weren't allowed to sit unless they paid more. They ended up buying the $75 tickets (and finding empty seats).

They enjoyed watching us dance. But otherwise were very confused about the event and different dances happening. They couldn't tell the difference between the open and syllabus events or different age groups, and had a hard time following the difference between dance styles. They are very new to this and it was very hard for them to enjoy watching competition.

My partner felt bad that her family was so confused but she couldn't spend the whole night with them explaining everything because we had to dance and prepare.

Do you guys also agree that:

1. Tickets to ballroom competitions are very expensive
2. The competitions don't try to be accessable to new audiences

Other dance shows give you playbills with explanation of the story or the dances and the dancers, and I think that would be helpful for ballroom competitions as well to do something to help an audience enjoy the experience.

We all know as competitors ballroom competitions are very expensive for us and would have been nice and more fun if competitions brought more new audience and energy to the industry.

P.S. We are competing in the USA

Looking for studios to practice or potentially take lessons. Amateur standard dancer. Thanks!

So my high school is having a dance sport competition as included in our sports fest. And our team doesn't have any volunteers for a female dancer so I was a last resort, if i don't join then our team will be forced to withdraw. I would really like to learn dancing but i have only 2½ to 3 weeks to prepare until the event plus the opposing teams have really good dancers so my only real goal is not to embarrass myself...my dance partner is nice and a good dancer but I don't want to burden him by having him teach me everything because i dont know a thing. Any advice on what dances I should learn first?

I’m dancing today💃🏻 Feel better then yesterday ehe

I just got back into ballroom about a year ago and about ready to get back into regular competitions. I got quoted $3,000+ for a 3-day (including meals and such). I think the prices for everything, registration, food, and lodging would add up to $1,000 maybe. So I assume the rest of the cost is from the time taken away from the instructor actually instructing. Honestly, just want to be sure I'm not being robbed lol.

All in all, I will find a way to compete no matter what, I am in love with dance. Thanks for the information!

Also, if you had specific goals last year, how did you do?